One of the topics that we see a lot of posting about in our forums is Light Painting.
This week - one of our Forum members - Sodaman420 - created a fantastic video tutorial on the topic of light painting.
Great work Sodaman420! If you like the video - head over to it’s Mindbites page and vote for it as a way of thanking him.
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36 Responses to “Tips on How to Light Paint [VIDEO TUTORIAL]”
July 28th, 2008 at 1:25 am
The music was a bit corny in my opinion, but otherwise that was an excellent video! Thanks for sharing!
July 28th, 2008 at 3:58 am
Another tip that might be worth mentioning is that if you don’t want to be seen in the picture while painting it helps to dress in black and try to cover as much of your skin as possible. Since black clothing reflects only very little amounts of light back to your camera you can become pretty much invisible if you don’t stay in one place for too long.
July 28th, 2008 at 4:10 am
I did a light painting post on my blog a while ago. My use of light painting is much more discreet, but going crazy like this is fun too ;-)
The hardest part really is to figure out the best aperture according to the light source power/ambient darkness level. Once it is well balanced, you can let your imagination run free.
Link to the post:
http://www.megapixelicio.us/2008/06/11/painting-with-light/
July 28th, 2008 at 5:33 am
I tried some light painting last year with a vodka bottle. Heres the link to my best shot on flickr.
July 28th, 2008 at 6:57 am
I really think this is very cool!!! There are endless possibilities…just creativity! :o)
July 28th, 2008 at 8:12 am
Love it! Inspiration!!
July 28th, 2008 at 12:04 pm
Thanks for the great tutorial. I’ll be trying this soon.
http://www.petelanglois.net
July 28th, 2008 at 12:52 pm
Very informative! I think light-painting could make for a great weekly assignment!
July 28th, 2008 at 1:40 pm
Great tutorial! Though I’d like to know how you got your speedlight to stay on for so long while do this.. I mean I know it was just used in streaks but it still seems like it was on longer then just a flick.
July 28th, 2008 at 1:53 pm
Light painting is a lot of fun. Below is a link to a light painting shot I did during my first photography class in 1985. Of course, it’s black and white.
One of the fun things about light painting is that you can really never know what you are going to get until you are done. It kinda brings back the mystery of photography.
http://www.newmediaphotographer.com/roshbwtim85.jpg
Rosh
http://www.newmediaphotographer.com
July 28th, 2008 at 1:55 pm
gust few ideas for light paint that I have from a long time may be it will be helpful to some one!Just one thing: I don’t like to use a bright source for my photos because the light will get over expouse and i use color light source and I want to keep the light color.
http://flickr.com/photos/nedyalko/sets/72157606411909605/
July 28th, 2008 at 1:57 pm
on those photos I use a flash to keep the person on the photo just use 2hd courten so that the flash can fire before the camera closes!
July 28th, 2008 at 2:24 pm
@ Claggy: To get your strobe to stay on for so long, use the modeling light. It was near the head of the strobe and was a small button.
July 28th, 2008 at 3:52 pm
Very helpful video, thank you for sharing!
July 28th, 2008 at 5:04 pm
I know my Rebel XTi by default requires me to hold down the shutter release during bulb mode. Is there a way to change it so I can shoot to start and shoot again to finish?
July 28th, 2008 at 7:01 pm
If you are using a flash gun, put it into auto mode so that each flash of the scene is metered consistently.
My efforts are here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/brettdickson/tags/lightpainting/
July 28th, 2008 at 9:50 pm
Cool tutorial! I did experiment with light painting a few months ago, and here’s a copy of stuff I did:
http://merman13.livejournal.com/tag/light+sketches
:)
July 28th, 2008 at 11:18 pm
@Sodaman420 I guess my Vivitar 285hv isn’t able to do that, because I am pretty sure the button on mine only makes it flicker at the speed I have it set to. Hm. What flash were you using in the video?
July 29th, 2008 at 12:38 am
very helpfull thanks alot, but what is the average shutter speed that you are using
July 29th, 2008 at 2:32 am
@claggy- using an sb-800 by nikon. It has a modeling flash (its supposed to give you an “idea” where the shadows will fall for portraits and stuff). I am unsure what others have this ability, I am sorry.
As for the music, ya, it is corny, but we couldn’t really license good music because it is expensive lol. Oh well xD
@ Bro- Avg shutter speed varies depending on how complex the painting is. anywhere from 15 seconds (the rings around a person) to 60 seconds or more for the full “mind bites” shot.
@joethesupercrow-Sorry, i shoot nikon so i do not know. Check your manual or ask in the canon section-also try checking your menus for bulb mode settings or timer settings, it might be there somewhere.
July 29th, 2008 at 4:09 am
This is a great blog post, definitely something worth trying.
July 29th, 2008 at 9:22 am
Wow, that was really cool! I never heard of it before and it looks fun to try.
July 29th, 2008 at 2:14 pm
As soon as I saw the video … I was like WhOa! I need to try this on the ASAPossible! It was also kewl to learn about the site MindBites … neat concept … but the site is getting a really large percentage of your cut … if you are into this sort of thing for money … anywho …
Back to the Light Painting! This was such a good time! Tried it tonight with a buddy of mine, but couldn’t stay out too long the mosquitoes were redonkulously bad … that is becoming a too often excuse for me these days.
It is more difficult than it seems, plus I had a small small flashlight, which probably did not help matters much. Experimented a bit … I can see how this could be a evening picture light painting extravaganza!
One additional kewl note here … I FINALLY learned what aperture was today … all because of this post … and used MANUAL … for the first time I think.
@jackthesupercrow … I hear your pain … I have a canon EOS 450D … same as yours. I used the 30 sec instead of bulb mode … not perfect, but enough to get started painting.
Thanks for the amazing post! It gave an injection of inspiration!
if you are curious how my first shot came out: http://www.flickr.com/photos/600901/2712876610/
July 29th, 2008 at 6:44 pm
hello. i wanna ask what if the camera does not have a bulb function? can i stil make the light paint?
i recently bought a fujifilm finepix s8000fd (semi-slr). im not even sure if it has or not coz i tink it does not. XD
i wanna try doing light paint using this camera but i dun really sure how XD
July 30th, 2008 at 3:44 am
@mohlson- ya, I know, but thats how it is. Site has to make money too :-X- good job on using manual xD
@shaz- if the camera doesn’t have a bulb function, you could try.. what camera is it? maybe turn the flash funtion off, then tripod mount it… and do it quickly?
July 30th, 2008 at 7:31 am
my tries: http://www.grunner.sk/noc/noc.php?lang=en
July 30th, 2008 at 4:05 pm
erm it’s a Fujifilm Finepix s8000fd. Semi-slr camera!
:D owh..mayb i will try..but now still daylight here XD
i’l wait til nite :P
July 31st, 2008 at 7:34 am
Alrighty, good luck!
August 1st, 2008 at 6:16 am
Anyone want to guess how I made this?
http://flickr.com/photos/letterk/231372073/
August 3rd, 2008 at 2:23 am
This is a good tutorial for beginners, and has great ideas for usage and post-processing.
A good tip for getting a subject to show up in the picture is to, after using the flashlight to write or draw, turn the flashlight on them. This technique can also be used to brighten the entire room, just by shining the light around. It’s a lot like painting; just make sure you “paint” every spot of the room to get even brightness. Here’s a good one where we used the light to show the subject.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/scrufidog/2301780012/in/set-72157603555296661/
I’ve also tried lightwriting in incomplete darkness. The result makes it seem like you were doing it in a room during the daytime and your subjects, if they stand still, will really show up. The drawback is that your subjects can tend to have more of a blur if they don’t stand still. But it can be done. Just look below. In reality it was really dark, except we left the bathroom light on and the door open. It was behind the camera and to the left, which explains the way the shadows are.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/scrufidog/2170666461/in/set-72157603555296661/
August 8th, 2008 at 1:45 am
@John: I was originally thinking something with gasoline and fire, until I read your how-to.
Instead of simply using a flashlight and painting, you could tie it to a rope and swing it around like a mad man, although this isn’t really painting anymore. Replace that flashlight with some fireballs and that’s a recipe for success… or disaster.
some examples: http://flickr.com/search/?q=poi&w=all
September 8th, 2008 at 11:28 pm
i utilise light painting in videos, but it’s a little bit more complicated.
share your experiences.
http://matos.art.free.fr/lightgraff_video_lightgraffiti.html
http://www.matox.fr
November 21st, 2008 at 5:34 pm
I thought the written result was quite artistic, how do you determine where to make light and maintain the perspective?
January 8th, 2009 at 5:58 am
too bad one has to pay to see the whole thing
April 5th, 2009 at 7:25 am
I really love this technique and want to give it ago, i have tried as best as i could to follow everyone instructions and tutorials but cannot figure out how to do it or set it up using my fugifilm finepix F50 :(
Just wondering if anyone knows how to set it up correctly to do this
Help would be much appricated :)
April 17th, 2009 at 8:44 am
Im struggling with light painting!, i have an E410, on maual mode i set the appature and exposure time, turn of the lights, press the shutter and paint, finish painting with a few seconds to spare and then when i look at the result, its just black, what am i doing wrong :(
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